Jail n. A kind of prison; a building for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding. [Written also gaol.]
This jail I count the house of liberty. --Milton.
Jail delivery, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence.
Jail delivery commission. See under Gaol.
Jail fever Med., typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and other places crowded with people; -- called also hospital fever, and ship fever.
Jail liberties, or Jail limits, a space or district around a jail within which an imprisoned debtor was, on certain conditions, allowed to go at large. --Abbott.
Jail lock, a peculiar form of padlock; -- called also Scandinavian lock.
Gaol n. A place of confinement, especially for minor offenses or provisional imprisonment; a jail. [Preferably, and in the United States usually, written jail.]
Commission of general gaol delivery, an authority conferred upon judges and others included in it, for trying and delivering every prisoner in jail when the judges, upon their circuit, arrive at the place for holding court, and for discharging any whom the grand jury fail to indict. [Eng.]
Gaol delivery. Law See Jail delivery, under Jail.
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gaol
n : a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in
the lawful custody of the government (either accused
persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a
sentence) [syn: jail, jailhouse, clink, slammer]
v : lock up or confine, in or as in a jail; "The suspects were
imprisoned without trial"; "the murderer was incarcerated
for the rest of his life" [syn: imprison, incarcerate,
lag, immure, put behind bars, jail, jug, put
away, remand]